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Dordt professor receives $55,000 research grant
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09/27/2013
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Boldly exploring \uc1\u8220?the final frontier,\uc1\u8221? Dordt College
Professor of Chemistry and Planetary Sciences Channon Visscher has
been awarded $55,685 to continue his research project titled \uc1\u8220?Collaborative
Research: Characterizing Cloudy Exoplanet Atmospheres.\uc1\u8221?
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The grant, awarded by the National Science \'46oundation, will aid
Visscher and a team of astronomers from the University of California\_Santa
Cruz in improving our understanding of the chemistry and weather of
planets outside our solar system.
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"The chemistry of these atmospheres is influencing what we can actually
see when we look at exoplanets,\uc1\u8221? said Visscher. \uc1\u8220?Different
kinds of clouds influence their appearance.\uc1\u8221?
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Visscher, a theoretical modeler, develops chemical models using a
computer program that simulates cloud formation. While Earth\uc1\u8217?s
clouds are made of water, clouds on other planets can be made of ammonia,
iron, and other materials. \uc1\u8220?I\uc1\u8217?ll be running the
chemical models to see what clouds can form, and we\uc1\u8217?ll compare
the appearance of planets that we simulate in our models with the
astronomical observations,\uc1\u8221? said Visscher.
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Visscher\uc1\u8217?s field of research is relatively new. The first
confirmed exoplanets were discovered in the early 1990s and most of
what we know of them has been inferred by indirect evidence, such
as tiny wobbles or dips in the light from their host stars. The new
study will focus on exoplanets that can be directly imaged by large
telescopes.
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Visscher and his team will compare their theoretical models with telescope
observations to find clues about what these planets are made of.\~
\uc1\u8220?We\uc1\u8217?re finding that as the number of discovered
exoplanets grows, so does their incredible diversity,\uc1\u8221? said
Visscher. \uc1\u8220?We\uc1\u8217?re using chemistry to try to explain
what the astronomers are seeing.\uc1\u8221?
\par}
}